German Unification Course Summary up to 1871 (1871-90 still to come!):
Contents
Section 1: The German Confederation, 1815-48
Section 2: Revolutions in Germany, 1848-9
Section 3: The rise of Prussia, 1850-62
Section 4: Diplomacy and War, 1862-71
Section 5: The role of Bismarck in unification
1. The German Confederation, 1815-48
Key questions to think about when revising:
- (a) Why was German unification unlikely in 1815?
- (b) What were the forces for change (which made unification MORE likely) from 1815-48?
(a)Why was German unification unlikely in 1815?
*Because of the way the German Confederation was set up at the Congress of Vienna (1815):
-Independence of individual German states: Confederation divided into 39 separate states ruled by individual princes each of whom was concerned with maintaining sovereignty over his own state.
-The set up of the DIET of the Confederation (which met permanently in Frankfurt):
~was attended by representatives CHOSEN BY THE INDIVIDUAL PRINCES
~had the Austrian ambassador as President of the Diet
~laws had to be passed unanimously (or at least by 2/3 majority) by the INNER COUNCIL and then the PLENARY SESSION
~lacked an army or civil service to put its decisions into practice.
~Was regularly subject to the influence of Metternich who, for example, pressured it into passing the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 (following the murder of the reactionary writer Kotzebue) and the Six Articles of 1832 (following the nationalist Hambach Festival) which strictly limited the freedom of the press and of associations and protest etc within the states of the Bund (German Confederation).
-Domination of Austria and Prussia
~Metternich’s setting up of the Congress System, to stamp out revolution and maintain the power of ‘legitimate’ rulers throughout Europe, which saw the setting up of the Troppau Protocol / Holy Alliance between Austria, Russia and Prussia. This ensured that, until international relations began to change with the Crimean War of 1854-6, Prussia was tied into a reactionary alliance with Austria.
~The Austrian Habsburg Empire, with its population of 25 million, was immensely powerful
~Austria acted as a deterrent to Prussia uniting the smaller states. Austria favoured a loose Confederation of states dominated by the Habsburg Emperor.
~Prussia was given land to the west in the Rhineland (rich in raw materials and thus possessing great industrial potential) and in the east in Posen and on the Russian border and its population was increased from about 5 million to 10 million. Prussia itself, however, suffered a West-East divide with the traditional Junker-dominated east lacking affinity with the more modern, liberal-minded and industrialised West.
Cultural/national disunity within the Confederation
*Many non-Germans lived in the Confederation
*some of the Confederation states were ruled by non-German governments (e.g. Hanover - Britain, Luxemburg - Netherlands, Schleswig and Holstein - Denmark etc.)
Catholic/Protestant divide
-There was a religious divide between the Catholic states (mainly in the South who looked to Austria for support) and the Protestant states (mainly in the North who looked to Prussia for support).
Junker dominance
-German society was dominated by the JUNKERS (landowning aristocrats who were against change and loyal to the individual Monarchs).
Conservative army and civil service
-Army and civil service/bureaucracy were mainly aristocratic and loyal to the monarchy
Lack of industrialisation / urbanisation
-Only 10% of the population lived in the towns which were not nearly as industrialised as the towns in, for example, Britain.
(b) What were the forces of change (which made unification MORE likely) between 1815 and 1848?
The Zollverein
-Grew out of Prussian Customs Union (set up in 1818) regulating the Prussian economy and getting rid of all customs barriers within Prussia.
-In 1830 Hesse-Cassel left the rival Middle Customs Union and joined the Prussian Customs Union leading to the collapse of the Middle Union and 18 states (including Prussia) joining the Prussian Customs Union to form the Zollverein in 1834.
-By 1844 only Austria, Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg and the Hanseatic towns were NOT in the Zollverein.
-The Zollverein encouraged cooperation and boosted trade between the German states by abolishing customs barriers and unifying the currency and system of weights and measures within the states of the Zollverein.
The growth of German Nationalism:
-Students and other educated middle class people began studying the writings of Fichte, Arndt and Jahn (see Shreeves, pp.109-112). Students formed themselves into nationalist organisations called Burscherschaften. The Burscherschaften were, perhaps not entirely coincidentally, at their height when Bismarck and other eventual leaders of German unification were at university.
-Nationalist demonstrations organised by Burscherschaften took place at Wartburg (1817) and Hambach (1832) (see Shreeves, p.112). These, whilst impressive, involving feasting, throwing reactionary books onto huge bonfires and speeches regarding the ‘German Fatherland’, lacked focus on exactly what a united Germany might be and were of more a romantic rather than a practical nature.
-The focus of German nationalists was sharpened firstly in 1840, when French foreign policy turned from global imperialism (as a rival to Britain) to European expansion, and secondly in 1846 when the King of Denmark tried to fully incorporate his territories of Schleswig and Holstein (part of the German Confederation) into the Kingdom of Denmark.
The growth of liberalism:
-As with many states which had been subject to the control of Napoleon I in the years leading up to 1815, the German middle classes, especially those directly ruled from France as the Rhineland Confederation, had been given a taste of power in legal, governmental and military circles, which was then taken away in Metternich’s drive for reaction throughout Europe. They were thus particularly receptive to the writings of men like Goethe and Schiller who argued that the rule of monarchs should be subject to constitutions in the form of parliaments containing educated men able to advise him.
-Liberalism gained sharper focus in the years leading up to 1848 when the rule of the South-Western state of Baden was forced in 1846 to accept a constitution based on by far the widest electoral franchise (biggest number of people able to vote for MPs) ever known in any German state. Following this success in Baden an Assembly of South Western States (with representatives from six South West German States) met in 1847 and declared that the problems facing the states of the Bund needed to be brought about by the setting up of a ‘German Republic’ (i.e. a united Germany without a king). In the same year, King Frederick William IV allowed a meeting of the Estates-General in Prussia.
2. Revolutions in Germany 1848-9.
Key questions to think about when revising.
(a)Why did revolutions break out throughout Germany in 1848? (long-term and short-term reasons)
(b)What were the main developments of the revolution in Germany?
(c)Why did the Frankfurt Parliament (May, 1848 – June 1849) fail?
(d) What was the impact of the Frankfurt Parliament/revolution in Germany?
(e) What was the impact of revolution on who controlled the German Confederation?
Why did revolutions break out throughout Germany, 1848-9?
Long-term:
-rising middle class demanding political representation [see also growth of Liberalism in Section 1]
-growing population throughout Europe leading to a scarcity of food
-industrialisation leading to a shift of population to towns leading to poor living and working conditions in the towns as well as the skilled Handwerker feeling that their trade was being undermined by the increasing use of factory machines and the cheap unskilled labour it took to run them.
Short-term:
-harvest failures throughout Europe in 1845-6 followed by an outbreak of potato blight in 1847(see Wilmot, pp.68-9).
-resultant trade recession in Europe, 1847 as rising food prices in the towns led to a dramatic fall in demand for consumer (factory-produced) goods (See Wilmot, p.69).
-Sharpening focus of nationalism and liberalism from 1846 (SEE ABOVE IN THE SECTIONS ON ‘THE GROWTH OF LIBERALISM’ AND ‘THE GROWTH OF NATIONALISM’)
- inspiration from revolutions in other European countries: e.g. Paris, February 1848; Hungary, March 1848 (against imperial Habsburg rule); Vienna, March 1848 etc.
(b) What were the main developments of the Revolutions in Germany?:
-The setting up of the FRANKFURT PARLIAMENT – a liberal dominated assembly of 596 men from all the German states given the task of drawing up a constitution for a united Germany – in May 1848.
[*set up by a Vorparlament at Heidelberg in March 1848)] SEE STILES, PP.32-9.
-The Revolution in Prussia:
*demonstrations and riots in Berlin, 13th-19th March 1848 led Frederick William IV (draped in the German colours of red, black and gold and declaring ‘I want liberty: I will have unity in Germany’) to accept the following on 21st March:
-election of an assembly to draw up a new liberal constitution for Prussia; -the appointment of a new liberal ministry (set of ministers).
(After Frederick William had left Berlin, however, he told his army in Potsdam how he felt ‘humiliated’ at the ‘concessions’ he had made to his people).
The Failure of the Revolution in Prussia
*The assembly spent March-December 1848 trying (and failing) to agree on the new Prussian constitution, largely due to the liberal/radical divide within the Assembly. It did, however, declare war on Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein and abolish many of the feudal, legal and financial privileges of the Junkers. On the other hand, it was notably moderate using middle class Civic guards to bring workers’ demonstrations under control and remaining avowedly opposed to social revolution.
*August 1848 Prussian landowners and nobles set up The League for the Protection of Landed Property in Berlin – known by its enemies as ‘The Junker Parliament’ – which aimed to abolish the Prussian Assembly and dismiss the Liberal Ministry. ALSO Junkers throughout Prussia got the peasants on their side by freeing them from several of their feudal obligations.
*By August 1848, Frederick William IV regaining control: -F.W.IV resumed control of foreign policy, concluding a peace with the Danes to the disgust of the Frankfurt Parliament; -riots by workers in Berlin in October 1848 persuaded many of the middle classes to switch their support to the king; -October 1848: successes of Emperor Franz Josef in Austria encouraged FW IV to dismiss the Liberal Ministry and appoint his uncle Count Brandenburg as the head of a new Ministry; -December 1848: the Prussian Assembly was dissolved by royal decree.
*December 1848: Frederick William IV granted HIS OWN constitution (something he did not mind as long as it was him who set it up). The constitution consisted of:
- a lower and upper house – the lower house voted for by full manhood suffrage (all adult men) in Prussia
-freedom of press, religion, association and a free legal system
Limitations: -the king could alter the constitution at any time he wanted; - in an emergency the king could suspend civil rights and collect taxes without the permission of parliament; -the king appointed his own ministers; -the king had control of the army.
Despite the limitations, most liberals and nationalists preferred Frederick William’s constitution as a means of uniting Germany (through Prussian domination) to the Frankfurt Parliament.
(c) Why did the Frankfurt Parliament fail?
-Lack of practical power: The Parliament, which lacked an army or civil service, had no real power over the individual states. An attempt was made to persuade the armies of each state to fight under the command of the Prussian Commander-in-Chief but none of them, not even the Prussian Commander-in-Chief, would agree to this.
-The Parliament members found it very difficult to reach any agreements:
*couldn’t decide whether to set up a Kleindeutschland or a Grossdeutschland and whether to set up a monarchy or a republic. This is why Karl Marx described the Frankfurt Parliament as a ‘talking shop’.
*it took until March 1849 to decide on a constitution (although many consider the fact that they succeeded on setting up the Frankfurt Parliament and reaching a decision at all was impressive. They also managed to agree on The Fifty Articles of fundamental rights of the German citizens by December 1848).
-The Parliament lacked the support of the masses:
*the peasants were granted additional rights and freedom by the Junkers early in the revolution which left them satisfied and unwilling to take any further part in the revolution
*the Parliament failed to listen to the concerns of the Handwerker (skilled craftsmen) by refusing to allow a guild system to operate in the German towns after an assembly of Handwerker meeting in Frankfurt had sent representatives to request this from the Frankfurt Parliament. The ‘Junker Parliament’ in Prussia DID allow the Prussian Handwerker a guild system (see Carr, pp.55-6)
*ALSO: The princes, who the Parliament hoped would support it, failed to offer their support: in April 1849 Frederick William IV refused to accept the crown of a united German Empire directly from the Frankfurt Parliament, or ‘from the gutter’ as he put it, saying he would only do so if the offer came from the princes. Soon afterwards the rulers of Bavaria, Saxony and Hanover rejected the united German constitution being suggested by the Frankfurt Parliament [this led most of the members of the parliament to give up and return to their individual states before the rest of the members were forcibly dispersed by Frederick William IV’s soldiers in June 1849].
-The international situation changed: In Austria, for example, Emperor Franz Josef had dissolved the Austrian Constituent Assembly (set up to limit his rule in March 1848) and had regained control of the whole Austrian Empire except Hungary by March, 1849. The Austrian Chief Minister Schwarzenberg even felt strong enough to suggest absorbing the German Confederation into the Austrian Habsburg Empire. This is largely what persuaded the princes to stand up so strongly against the Frankfurt Parliament.
(d) What was the IMPACT of the revolution in Germany, 1848-9?:
-Demonstration that liberal methods would not unite Germany: The failure of the Frankfurt Parliament proved (as Bismarck pointed out in his ‘blood and iron’ + ‘avoiding the mistakes of 1848’ speech of September 1862) that industry and war, and not liberal methods, were needed to achieve German unification. Later liberal nationalists would come round to the idea that, although for many of them it was not ideal, they should rally together behind the idea of uniting Germany under the guidance of the dominant Prussia. For this reason they would set up the German National Association in 1859.